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All
Saints, Newton by Castle Acre

This church is a
familiar sight on the Fakenham to Swaffham road. I always
associate it with trips to Walsingham, since I most often
see it en route to the Catholic shrine there, and again
on returning - but then, in the dark, floodlighting makes
its stone walls glow like honey. A beautiful landmark,
always to be anticipated.

All
Saints' churchwardens are to be congratulated for opening
it everyday, maintaining a friendly rest stop for
travellers and pilgrims. The church combines an ancient
calm with a clear, bright, neatly-kept worship-space, an
unforgettable delight.

From the
outside the structure is easy to read, the central tower
punctuating simple nave and chancel. Everything appears
Saxon apart from the window tracery, and the cap on the
tower, which Mortlock sees as continental in style, while
Pevsner argues that this is what would have been there
originally.

Inside,
the building is more complex, a succession of rooms
unfolding as you move east. The first arch (strictly, the
tower arch) has the royal arms above it, and is later and
pointed, but the second arch, the chancel arch, is rugged
and Saxon. Modern furnishings interact with early 14th
century windows to create a sense of the unfamiliar, but
it works. Everything is understated and harmonious.

There is a
doorway halfway up the eastern wall of the nave on the
north side. Obviously, this was the doorway into the
roodloft, and access to it was from the tower stairway. A
window above the arch is more curious. Obviously Saxon,
it lets into the space of the tower. Perhaps it allowed
the gospel to be read from up there.

A ledger
stone beneath the tower remembers the wonderfully named
Kingborrow Martin, a woman. Where on earth did that name
come from?